Jenny’s Pennies

Amanda Marcotte of Pandagon has also commented on the “we need to breed”-nonsense that I wrote about yesterday. She also has a video from the Nation that summarizes the article.

And, today in Dagens Nyheter, the latest statistics from SCB (Swedish bureau of statistics), that show that more people are getting married and having children in Sweden than in previous years. Marriages are up 5 percent from 2006 (to the highest number since 1968, if you discount 1989 when a change in law regarding pensions for widows/widowers made many people drive into marriage-ville) and births are up 1.4 percent. In 2006, we had a excess of births over deaths of 15 692. So no, we are not going extinct. Of course, we don’t know how many of those births that are of the “right” babies (you know, blond, blue-eyed and born of God-fearing parents who only had sex to create that baby). But there it is.
If you’re into statistics, SCB has it all in English here.

Kathryn Joyce of The Nation has written a long article called “Missing: the ‘Right’ Babies” about the so called “demographic winter of Europe” - that the “West” is failing to produce enough babies and is in danger of becoming “out-breeded” by the Muslim immigrants and their purportedly numerous offspring. From the article, a quote by former presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who quit the republican presidential race in the beginning of February:

“Europe is facing a demographic disaster” due to its modernized, secular culture, particularly its “weakened faith in the Creator, failed families, disrespect for human life and eroded morality.”

This nativist “pro-family” movement is a mess of sexism and nationalism blended with religious extremism. For them, women’s liberation, contraception, gay rights, divorce, abortion, and secular humanism is to blame for the demise of Europe. The movement is spearheaded by American right-wing Christians, but has the backing of politicians and organizations in Europe. Even Muslims are sometimes allowed into the unholy alliance - when it comes to blocking rights for women and gays at the UN, these people are happy to gang up with Iran and Saudi Arabia. But when it comes to babies, they want the right babies - white babies.

But for this to work, women need to dedicate their lives and their wombs to this demographic warfare. And I have a suspicion that the way they want to do this is not by implementing true family-friendly policies: not by ending work place discrimination against women who have children, not by making life easier for single parents, not by improving child care and education, addressing poverty, and ensuring access to equal and affordable health care.

This quote by Paul Mero and Allan Carlson, writers of The Natural Family Manifesto, says it all:

“Above all, we believe in rights that recognize women’s unique gifts of pregnancy, childbirth, and breastfeeding.”

If they want to get me behind the idea of preserving “Western culture” they will have to include in their definition of this culture all the progress that we have made in the last decades and that makes me happy to live in Sweden: the possibility for women to have careers outside the home or the schoolteacher/nurse option, the advancement in rights for gays and in how non-heterosexuals are viewed in the society, the right to choose one’s own religion or lack thereof, the ability to chose and control the number of children you have, and so on.

But this is not what they wish to preserve. To them, all the things which I see as good and positive developments, are a threat to “our way of life”. In their logic, by allowing freedom for women and freedom of (or from) religion, we are being overrun by people who treat their women miserably and advocates killing all the infidels. Funny how their world views coincide…

(Update: the article is also reprinted over at Alternet; it’s always interesting to read the comments section there.)

A week ago, in a hospital in Naples, Italy, a woman was recovering from her anaesthesia after having a (completely legal) abortion. Then, police entered the hospital and started interrogation the woman, still in her hospital bed. They also seized the aborted fetus as “evidence”. The woman, who in Italian newspapers has been identified by her first name Silvana, was 39 years old. (Read the New York Times article here, Dagens Nyheter in Swedish here)

The police had acted on an anonymous tip that the abortion had taken place later in the pregnancy than the law allows (in Italy the limit is 24 weeks). But the hospital showed that the pregnancy had been terminated at 21 weeks, well within the limit, after that a test had showed severe fetal deformities.

Why is it acceptable to treat a woman like this? Even if the police were to investigate it, surely there is a better way than to bust into the hospital ward in a way that Carmine Nappi, the chief of obstetrics at the hospital, likened to an anti-Mafia raid. Here is a woman who just has undergone a physically and emotionally painful experience, and the police thinks that is a good time to interrogate her?!

The event has led to protests in Italy, in defence of the country’s abortion law, with the participation of Health Minister Livia Turco who said: “we are defending a law that is close to us”.

In Italy, abortion has been legal for 30 years. The subject is of course controversial, since the Catholic Church has a huge influence on Italian politics and society. Parliamentary elections will be held mid-April, and abortion has now become a pivotal issue in the election campaign.

Former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is expected to win the election and has promised to change the abortion law if he wins. He has also backed a campaign for getting the UN to declare a universal moratorium on abortions (I can’t wrap my head around this, and I really wish I read Italian so I could see how on earth he argues for this idea). The campaign was started in December last year, by Giu­liano Ferrara, editor of conservative newspaper Il Foglia (which is used as a campaign platform) and former minister in a Berlusconi government.

So while the anti-choice crowds are gathering strength, the partly liberal-Catholic center-left block is unsure of how to act, according to Dagens Nyheter. Last week, a web campaign was launched to compel the politicians to defend the abortion law. It says: “Enough is enough. The clerical offensive against women has become unbearable. But equally unbearable is the lack of reactions from the center-left.”

I wish the women of Italy best of luck. And Silvana, the woman who was harassed by the police and used as a tool by people who couldn’t care less about her and her feelings, I wish you well also.

Cara of the Curvature writes about the story here.

Women’s eNews has a story up on how the leftist regime shift in Latin America has failed to address the issue of reproductive rights, but how Brazil seems to be an exception.

In the Brazilian town of Recife, where carnival just starts, the government is planning to dispense emergency contraception (EC, aka Plan B or the morning after pill). Not surprisingly, the archbishop of Recife warned that those who use EC will face excommunication and vowed to seek action in court to block it.

(And here it’s time to say it again: EC is not an “abortion pill”. It works by preventing ovulation or fertilization. If you’re already pregnant, it won’t work.)

Brazil’s minister for health, Jose Temporao, has also called for discussing abortion as a matter of public health and women’s reproductive rights. Women’s eNews writes:

“Unfortunately, women haven’t been heard on this discussion,” Temporao said in an e-mail interview with Women’s eNews. “They are the most interested party. There are 700 hospitalizations per day due to problems relating to abortion . . . I wonder: If men got pregnant, would this issue be resolved by now?”

Read the rest of the story, because it is at least some good news from a continent where women’s lives are sacrificed in the name of “morality” and “sanctity of life”.

If you read Swedish, you should read Vida Latina’s post from a few weeks ago, about Argentina. I have translated a bit here, because it is so appalling:

“She came to the ER on a Saturday, because she has such stomach pains that she didn’t know what to do, and she was getting a fever. But the doctors refused to help her, because according to them, her symptoms indicated that she had an abortion. She should suffer. Come back on Monday, she was told. Monday, she came back. The diagnosis: a ruptured appendix.”